


Souls Mirrored

by Lady_Saddlebred



Series: Lessons They Never Taught Me [41]
Category: Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-02
Updated: 2018-06-02
Packaged: 2019-05-17 02:40:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 620
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14823674
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_Saddlebred/pseuds/Lady_Saddlebred
Summary: A thoughtful afterglow...





	Souls Mirrored

Title: Souls Mirrored

Author: Lady_Saddlebred (cdelapin@yahoo.com)

Archive: Yes, please

Category: Q/O, Alternate Reality

Rating: PG-13

Series: Lessons They Never Taught Me in School (archived)

 

DISCLAIMER: George Lucas owned everything, until he sold it to Disney. We own nothing, just playing in his playground.

 

Special thanks to Katbear and Merry Amelie and Helen, mes betas par excellence! Any mistakes are mine.

 

Previous fics in series:  
Early Admission  
Lessons They Never Taught Me in School  
Lessons That Were Never on the Syllabus  
That Which Does Not Go to School  
Rainy Day Recess   
Of Popcorn and Pine Trees  
Fit to Print  
Daffodils  
Spring Cotillion  
Is That a Lightsaber I See Before Me?  
A Pen for Your Thoughts  
When I Was Your Age  
Partners  
Mum’s the Word  
Best Laid Plans  
An Apple for Teacher  
What’s for Supper?  
Pacifier  
Snow Angels  
One Man’s Junk  
May I Have This Dance?  
Four Green Fields  
Too Darned Hot  
Pomp and Circumstances  
Summertime Blues  
Blow the Man Down  
Post-Graduate Studies  
Crossing the Pond  
Moving On  
Picnic in the Park  
Family Matters  
Meeting of the Moms  
Ebony and Ivories  
A Less Than Perfect Storm  
Chicken Soup  
Measuring Up  
The Drinking Game  
Rainy Day Recess Revisited  
Step It Out

 

~*~*~*~

 

He sleeps. Sated, satisfied. Content. 

Because of me. 

Ben stood at the bedroom window, watching his lover slumber in the moonlight. The silvering chestnut hair was mussed, disheveled, a far cry from the carefully styled “do” of daylight hours. The high broad forehead was smooth, free of the care-lines that so often creased it when awake. Mouth lax, breathing deep and calm. Strong right arm flung out to the side, palm open, fingers gently curled. 

Exposed. Vulnerable. 

Such a little thing, but so perfectly reflective of their relationship. Less than two years together, but they’d walked side by side on a path that was often rough and bumpy. Uncharted waters, in an often-storm-tossed ocean of emotion. They’d had to learn as they went, and it hadn’t been easy. 

Not at all. 

Ben had been walking wounded, with gaping holes in his soul. Quinn had seen his agony, and had struggled first to triage, to stem the bleeding. Then to heal.

But he’d had his own lacerations, buried deep, varnished with education and a polished sophistication that awed anyone who met him. Suave, smooth, debonair, yet painfully shy underneath. 

Adele had enabled a years-long pretense of mutual passion, safeguarding his unspoken fragility. And the world believed.

He was her gallant knight on a white steed, her champion, her protector. And the world approved, even applauded.

But she’d never seen this side of him. Of that, Ben was quietly sure. Quinn had never let his guard down to this extent, not with anyone.

Only with him. 

It had taken time, and a galaxy’s worth of patience, but Quinn had gradually lowered his barriers, had let him see beyond the urbane exterior that had unknowingly drawn Ben in. What he’d found under all those carefully constructed layers was infinitely more precious. 

And with that trust came the ability to relax, to sleep without fear of discovery. To lay down his burdens. 

Quinn had gently healed Ben’s torn soul, washed away his shame at being… different. Garth had made him feel dirty, depraved, unworthy of loving or of being loved. Quinn had restored him to himself, had opened his mind, even as he opened his arms and his heart to a bitterly lonely, afraid-to-trust young man. They’d learned together, grown together, and now they were one.

A restless movement from the bed. Quinn’s hand absently rose to brush at the hair falling into his eyes, then was still again. Ben smiled.

He was Quinn’s protector now, as Quinn was his. 

Souls mirrored.

~end~


End file.
